According to Amazon, there are currently over a hundred thousand books on sales in print. If you bought them all, then it cost you about one million dollars. And it may even seem profitable, as companies spend at least two and a half billion a year on sales training.
Marketing basics
Given these huge numbers, one might think that sales and marketing is a truly difficult event, the study of which will take a lifetime. And thus, you will be right, in the sense that you think that it takes a lifetime. After all, it really needs a lot of time to master everything.
Each person’s craft requires basic skills that you must possess. With golf, for example, the basic rules are how you stand, how you hold the club, and so on. If you don’t know these basics, then you won’t be able to play golf.
Sales are the same, but so much has been written about them, and so much to learn, that it’s easy to get lost in the end. Fortunately, journalist Nikolai spent the last fifteen years interviewing sales gurus, scientists, and even neuroscientists who studied marketing. Now he is going to share with us the whole essence of what he has learned. Like golf, he says, in sales and marketing there are three basic rules that form the basis of any situation. Here is a little motivation.
Build trust
The seller and the buyer must trust each other to complete the transaction. It is created in three ways: technologically (trading platform, for example, the Amazon website), legally (enforcing the law) and personally (through contacts and direct communications).
Information about what you sell
You must provide full product information. Then there is a high probability that as a result of this transaction, the client will be happy and satisfied and may want to contact you again.
Find out new needs of a potential customer
Now that you have laid the foundation for future transactions, you should find out what else your company may be useful for customers. In this case, just ask if they will need something else in addition to what they have already bought.
I must say that this three-step sequence is the basis of all sales and marketing scenarios, without exception. Thus, it is important first of all to establish contact with your customers, determine the nature of their needs and make sure that they know that their needs can be met at the expense of your business enterprise. Knowing these simple rules, you can sell anything to anyone, and it is not at all necessary to re-read tons of books for this.